[MHml] ISAF Multihull Offshore Regs

[Dave Howorth]

On Fri, 2007-12-28 at 18:24 +0000, Peter Lillywhite wrote:
> I thought it might be fun to return to some racing next season with
> MOCRA here in the UK. As a first step I downloaded the latest regs
> from the ISAF site, on reading I discovered that my 39 foot Azuli
> doesn’t even satisfy in one case the Cat4 requirements.

I'd suggest contacting MOCRA directly. I'm sure they don't want to
discourage people. Those latest regs look like they weren't fully
reviewed by multihull experts, but MOCRA is full of them and RORC and
RYA certainly have them!

>  In particular my sliding doors do not appear to satisfy the
> companionway hatch requirements which state that they ‘be capable of
> being blocked off up to the level of the local sheerline, provided
> that the companionway hatch shall continue to give access to the
> interior with the blocking devices (e.g. washboards) in place’.

Is it not possible to mount a plank across the bottom of the doors up to
"the level of the local sheerline"? It does seem unlikely that your
cockpit would be flooded on a coastal race!

> I cannot carry my small portable generator because its not
> ‘permanently installed…. and have permanently installed exhaust and
> fuel supply systems and fuel tank.’

I didn't find that in the cat 4 multihull regs. Is it somewhere else?

>   I also need a heavy weather jib in addition to my robust roller
> reefing jib, the fact that I have no way of hoisting it ‘independent
> of any luff-groove device’ isn’t considered.

Having some means to hoist a jib if your roller reefing is damaged seems
sensible. Can you not hoist a storm jib on a spinnaker halyard, for
example?

Cheers, Dave